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A Tennessee man who spent over a month in jail for posting a meme following the death of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk has received a large cash settlement from his home county, an outcome he described as a victory for free speech rights.

Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old man from Lexington, Tennessee, spent 37 days in Perry County jail last fall following his arrest by the sheriff’s department after he shared several memes on Kirk’s murder.

Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems called Bushart’s Kirk posts “hate memes” that were nonetheless “not against the law and would be recognized as free speech.” Bushart was arrested for posting an image of President Donald Trump with a quotation that read, “We have to get over it. — Donald Trump on the Perry High School mass shooting one day after.” The remark was made by Trump earlier in 2025, following a school shooting in Perry, Iowa.

“This seems relevant today,” the meme was captioned.

Bushart, a retired police officer, shared the image to a Perry County, Tennessee, Facebook group he belonged to. He was taken into custody soon after the post was made, with the sheriff’s department claiming to have been contacted in fear that he was planning a school shooting of his own at the local Perry High School.

I Am on Kirk’s “Professor........

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